Why Environmentalism?
Maybe I am a limousine-liberal.....
After all, the Earth is just a rock in space.
Yes. I don't want to preserve our environment for some mystical reason or because I believe in a Gaian soul, but because we live here.
And humanity will probably manage to hang on to dear life, more or less like cockroaches or viruses, even on a piece of empty rock floating through space. So, it's not merely survival that I am talking about, either.
I simply happen to prefer living on a blue & green planet with whales and dolphins, glaciers and ice-caps, the Gulf Stream, seasons, different climate zones, tropical rain forests and all that stuff. Maybe VR will replace all of that one day - Remember the Matrix? Remember William Gibson? - but until then, I enjoy the very selfish pleasure of simply looking at things.
And while the stars and nebulae are amazing as well, I would rather have diversity for my tired old eyes. And that, actually, is a very big reason why I will take my daughter sailing to far-away places. Every island resembles every other island more and more every year. People even begin to talk about the same TV programs everywhere and diversity is harder and harder to find.
It may be hard to believe, but even in the short time that I have been traveling around, so many interesting things have been lost already that people who haven't seen the difference for themselves just can't appreciate what has been lost. There used to be hundreds of dolphins accompanying boats all the time, now there are maybe three to five. Where coral reefs were alive and flourishing, teeming with all kinds of fish, we find most of the fish gone and the coral dead or dying. I don't even want to talk about Brazil....
But here, look for yourself what is there now. http://www.pbase.com/mayonick/2003&page=all
It will be gone in no time, you may be sure of that.
"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." -- Albert Einstein
http://pub38.ezboard.com/fpeaceandboatdrinks66759frm2.showMessage?topicID=221.topic
http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=19990859
Saturday, December 13, 2003
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
In reply to the following thread at the Bombay Wise Up Club Martini Club
Um..... While it may have come across as such, I had not intended that post as a glorification of poverty. I have spent too much time amongst people who didn't have enough, and instead of making them somehow noble, it made them stingy and mean. Some felt entitled to take advantage of others - they have so much, so they sure can spare this - or even to steal from people who were just as poor as them. Whenever this type of yachtie showed up in an anchorage, people battened down the hatches, the harbormasters got very unfriendly and all in all things became very unpleasant in a hurry.
I don't think that's the way to go at all, in fact. What I had in mind was more along the lines of having what you need, instead of having what you want, or even worse, haven even more than what you want.
Happiness only through struggle? Doesn't sound very appealing, does it? But I am afraid that without struggle it is rather difficult to get there. And I guess you are right, after we've been there for a while it palls and we have to struggle all over again. The only drug that I never get bored with in its various manifestations is alcohol. But then again, a friend is right now in the process of dying because his liver has finally given up the fight. So.... I am taking a little breather at the moment.
My own blog often careens towards anti-bourgeois broadsides as well.
I had to laugh out loud when I read that sentence. A pleasant surprise on an otherwise rather unpleasant day. But it is true, recently I am given a bit to firing broadsides while my ship is turning to all points of the compass. And what's worse is that I am giving no thought to returning fire, or tactical considerations on where and how to dodge the cannonballs which might come my way.
The rake? Sounds like a damn fine one, worthy to be fixed.
What kind of company I am keeping? Why, the same one I have kept for years. Mostly misfits and alcoholics, writers and disillusionists. I am not overly worried about them sinking into the soft cushion of over-consumption. If anybody, it is more myself and our little family that I am worried about. I am straining at the bit, itching to go and I can see that it will be quite a struggle to cast off and get away from here.
Life is comfortable, too much so. It deadens the senses and it inhibits any kind of action. It would be stupid to leave just like that and it would be even more stupid to stay. The people who have more or consume more are the ones that I hold up in front of my eyes, saying: This is not what you want, old boy! End up in a ditch, yeah, sink with all hands - all that is part of the game. But never even trying? I am extremely wary of the path of least resistance, the comfortable middle-way. Maybe it's just me, but I just can't see myself on my deathbed being satisfied with myself when all I could look back to is a life of mediocrity, safety, security, comfort and luxury.
But there's something else, which has nothing to do with my particular slightly insane quest for a meaningful life (Quote my father: "Not all people can or want to live your way!") - I just really hate waste of all kinds. And all this overconsumption-business encourages waste on a monumental scale, even down to the rape and destruction of the planet we live on. And yet it is one of the cultural mainstays of every country I have ever been to.
As far as scaling back is concerned, I would have to say that I could be classified as a minimalist in everyday life. The only thing that I am really attached to is my library. And since I already lost one because of a typhoon years ago, I know that it may hurt, but it isn't all that bad after all. Who knows, maybe that was a lesson to be learned as well. I have read the books, the ideas have become part of me and changed me, so why should I be attached to the possession of the actual volumes? So far I still am, I have to admit.
Um..... While it may have come across as such, I had not intended that post as a glorification of poverty. I have spent too much time amongst people who didn't have enough, and instead of making them somehow noble, it made them stingy and mean. Some felt entitled to take advantage of others - they have so much, so they sure can spare this - or even to steal from people who were just as poor as them. Whenever this type of yachtie showed up in an anchorage, people battened down the hatches, the harbormasters got very unfriendly and all in all things became very unpleasant in a hurry.
I don't think that's the way to go at all, in fact. What I had in mind was more along the lines of having what you need, instead of having what you want, or even worse, haven even more than what you want.
Happiness only through struggle? Doesn't sound very appealing, does it? But I am afraid that without struggle it is rather difficult to get there. And I guess you are right, after we've been there for a while it palls and we have to struggle all over again. The only drug that I never get bored with in its various manifestations is alcohol. But then again, a friend is right now in the process of dying because his liver has finally given up the fight. So.... I am taking a little breather at the moment.
My own blog often careens towards anti-bourgeois broadsides as well.
I had to laugh out loud when I read that sentence. A pleasant surprise on an otherwise rather unpleasant day. But it is true, recently I am given a bit to firing broadsides while my ship is turning to all points of the compass. And what's worse is that I am giving no thought to returning fire, or tactical considerations on where and how to dodge the cannonballs which might come my way.
The rake? Sounds like a damn fine one, worthy to be fixed.
What kind of company I am keeping? Why, the same one I have kept for years. Mostly misfits and alcoholics, writers and disillusionists. I am not overly worried about them sinking into the soft cushion of over-consumption. If anybody, it is more myself and our little family that I am worried about. I am straining at the bit, itching to go and I can see that it will be quite a struggle to cast off and get away from here.
Life is comfortable, too much so. It deadens the senses and it inhibits any kind of action. It would be stupid to leave just like that and it would be even more stupid to stay. The people who have more or consume more are the ones that I hold up in front of my eyes, saying: This is not what you want, old boy! End up in a ditch, yeah, sink with all hands - all that is part of the game. But never even trying? I am extremely wary of the path of least resistance, the comfortable middle-way. Maybe it's just me, but I just can't see myself on my deathbed being satisfied with myself when all I could look back to is a life of mediocrity, safety, security, comfort and luxury.
But there's something else, which has nothing to do with my particular slightly insane quest for a meaningful life (Quote my father: "Not all people can or want to live your way!") - I just really hate waste of all kinds. And all this overconsumption-business encourages waste on a monumental scale, even down to the rape and destruction of the planet we live on. And yet it is one of the cultural mainstays of every country I have ever been to.
As far as scaling back is concerned, I would have to say that I could be classified as a minimalist in everyday life. The only thing that I am really attached to is my library. And since I already lost one because of a typhoon years ago, I know that it may hurt, but it isn't all that bad after all. Who knows, maybe that was a lesson to be learned as well. I have read the books, the ideas have become part of me and changed me, so why should I be attached to the possession of the actual volumes? So far I still am, I have to admit.
Tuesday, December 09, 2003
Family History
Chinese often know their family history back to about eight generations. But since I don't want to write a thick volume of recent Chinese history, let me start with just one or two generations ago.
Liping's grandmother is still alive and I have seen her several times. When I first met her, she surprised me when she said that I should call her Oma. When I asked her how she knew that we call our grandmothers Oma, she said that she had had a Dutch neighbor 65 or more years ago in Jakarta who called his grandmother Oma.
Liping's grandparents were rich coffee plantation owners in Indonesia. They were so rich that the children didn't walk around, but were actually carried by servants. They never received any proper schooling, though. Liping's grandparents also were Hakka, the most traditional of all Chinese "tribes". It is usual that the Hakka-women are in charge of the finances of the family, while the men are left with the illusion of power. That, unfortunately, was not the state of affairs in Liping's family.
When the communist and anti-Chinese scare hit Indonesia in the 50s, Liping's grandfather sold the whole plantation, converted the proceeds to many bars of gold and went looking for a fishing boat which might take them to safety in Taiwan. He paid an absolutely horrendous amount of gold to secure passage for his family. Only the eldest daughter was left behind as she had already married. She still lives there now and the grandparents and Liping's mother's generation still mainly use Bahasa Indonesia to communicate.
When the family arrived in Taiwan, it didn't take long for a local conman to cheat them out of the remaining gold. Suddenly they found themselves destitute without any useful skills. There aren't too many coffee plantations that need to be managed around here. In fact there aren't any.
So the grandfather went to work as an unskilled laborer in a factory and became a very bitter man. The promised land turned into a hellhole for him and all Liping remembers is an angry old man, sitting in his undershirt in the kitchen, smoking one cigarette after another. He died before I got to know Liping.
The nine remaining children, almost all daughters, were sold for bride-money. That didn't exactly endear them to their parents, especially as they had until that time lived a very sheltered life. Liping's mother was one of them, and she had to be sold off pretty early, as, you see, she was already pregnant. In fact, the family was extremely lucky that Liping's father was willing to marry her.
About the father's side, not too much is known, as he was kidnapped by the Nationalists one rainy night and conscripted into their army. He never saw his family or his homeland again. Originally he was from Canton province, and there might still be relatives around, but we know next to nothing about them. Fortunately for him, he had already finished high-school and was therefore one of the higher educated amongst the KMT soldiers. He managed to save up some money and thus was able to pay the bride price. Most other soldiers never got that far and lived in loneliness until they died. Even now many of them can be found in concierge jobs.
Liping's parents then proceeded to build a rudimentary hut on government land. That's where Liping grew up. The family was desperately poor and one of the sons was sold, because there wasn't enough food. Still, he died. Liping's mother became more and more unhappy with her situation, started drinking and quarreling, had boyfriends outside and finally kicked the old man out. She still somehow managed to relieve him of all his money every month, and when he didn't have any left - but she needed something - she sent him to steal it. Liping's father never complained very much. He was of the opinion that he was already very lucky and didn't really deserve such a beautiful wife anyway. He took on a second job selling sesame-balls in the streets, loved his children dearly, but was absolutely powerless to do anything about the worsening situation.
We don't know exactly what happened, it may have been sleep-deprivation or something more sinister, but one day he apparently stumbled with his push-cart into the traffic, got hit and killed. Liping was about thirteen years old when this happened.
Now things got even worse, because although Liping's mother got a pension, it was still less than before. The mother drank more, got more angry, beat the little sister even more and often simply left home for a period of time. More than once Liping came home from school to find her little brother literally crawling in his own shit. [<-- excrement]
When the little sister couldn't take it anymore, she left home and lived on the streets. She was twelve at the time. Liping left as well, but since she had always been an excellent student, she got good scholarships and lived in school dormitories. Her sister didn't even finish elementary school. Her older brother joined the military and the little brother followed a few yeas later.
Liping found a place to live for both of the little ones, and while it worked out fine for the brother, nothing seemed to work for the sister. She was simply too damaged, couldn't stand it to stay anywhere for long, couldn't develop any kind of trust and quit one job after another.
That was about the time when I appeared at the scene. We were both worried about her little sister and Liping continued to persuade and cajole her to stay with a job and to go to night-school to get at least a rudimentary education. It didn't look too good.
Liping herself had managed to get into the best program and the best university in the country. Her older brother, while being a very nice person, had somehow inherited the weakness of her father and never was any help. But that didn't really matter.
After a few years the little sister somehow realized that she would be in deep trouble if she continued what she was doing and made a real effort. It must have been a real killer for her, as she also had to work long hours for very little money at the same time. Then she met Ah-ji, they got married and things are looking good, although Ah-ji's family has its own troubles as well.
Both brothers are going to get married any time soon, and all they want is safety and security. They may be the most boring people you can imagine, but they know what they have and they will never ever risk it.
And Liping? The whole ordeal has left her a lot stronger than she otherwise would have been. I know her classmates quite well and I can say for sure that not one of them is as independent-thinking and as independent-acting as she is.
That turned out to be very important for me as well, as Liping told me that one of the main reasons that attracted her to me was the fact that life with me would never be boring, but unpredictable and always full of surprises. :-)))
~~~~~~~~~~
As to how they broke the vicious cycle: We will have to take Liping's words for that. According to her, the main reason lies with the fact that Taiwan was booming at the time. Another very important fact was that the Confucian work-ethic was still very much alive then. And the third was the fact that the country was ruled by a comparatively benevolent military junta.
In my own estimation the second one is probably the most important. No matter where you turned, whether it be to teachers, classmates' parents, or anywhere else in society - everywhere you got the mantra that hard work pays off in the end, that beginnings don't really matter, that trying your best is what it's all about. And like they said in Illuminatus: What I tell you three times is true. Sooner or later you believe it and when you believe it, it will give you confidence and with that confidence it is indeed possible to overcome.
~~~~~~~~~~
Things have changed drastically over the last twenty or thirty years. The boom has fizzled out, the junta has given way to a young democracy and you are beginning to see the first homeless. The Confucian work-ethic is a thing of the last generation and my students have so far lived their life in such luxury that it isn't easily imaginable for the average Westerner. The big issue now is independence. Many people want it at any price and the others are afraid of a war with China. Nobody - I mean not even 0.1% of the population - wants to be part of China. Take part in the boom which has moved over there, yes. But that's all.
Chinese often know their family history back to about eight generations. But since I don't want to write a thick volume of recent Chinese history, let me start with just one or two generations ago.
Liping's grandmother is still alive and I have seen her several times. When I first met her, she surprised me when she said that I should call her Oma. When I asked her how she knew that we call our grandmothers Oma, she said that she had had a Dutch neighbor 65 or more years ago in Jakarta who called his grandmother Oma.
Liping's grandparents were rich coffee plantation owners in Indonesia. They were so rich that the children didn't walk around, but were actually carried by servants. They never received any proper schooling, though. Liping's grandparents also were Hakka, the most traditional of all Chinese "tribes". It is usual that the Hakka-women are in charge of the finances of the family, while the men are left with the illusion of power. That, unfortunately, was not the state of affairs in Liping's family.
When the communist and anti-Chinese scare hit Indonesia in the 50s, Liping's grandfather sold the whole plantation, converted the proceeds to many bars of gold and went looking for a fishing boat which might take them to safety in Taiwan. He paid an absolutely horrendous amount of gold to secure passage for his family. Only the eldest daughter was left behind as she had already married. She still lives there now and the grandparents and Liping's mother's generation still mainly use Bahasa Indonesia to communicate.
When the family arrived in Taiwan, it didn't take long for a local conman to cheat them out of the remaining gold. Suddenly they found themselves destitute without any useful skills. There aren't too many coffee plantations that need to be managed around here. In fact there aren't any.
So the grandfather went to work as an unskilled laborer in a factory and became a very bitter man. The promised land turned into a hellhole for him and all Liping remembers is an angry old man, sitting in his undershirt in the kitchen, smoking one cigarette after another. He died before I got to know Liping.
The nine remaining children, almost all daughters, were sold for bride-money. That didn't exactly endear them to their parents, especially as they had until that time lived a very sheltered life. Liping's mother was one of them, and she had to be sold off pretty early, as, you see, she was already pregnant. In fact, the family was extremely lucky that Liping's father was willing to marry her.
About the father's side, not too much is known, as he was kidnapped by the Nationalists one rainy night and conscripted into their army. He never saw his family or his homeland again. Originally he was from Canton province, and there might still be relatives around, but we know next to nothing about them. Fortunately for him, he had already finished high-school and was therefore one of the higher educated amongst the KMT soldiers. He managed to save up some money and thus was able to pay the bride price. Most other soldiers never got that far and lived in loneliness until they died. Even now many of them can be found in concierge jobs.
Liping's parents then proceeded to build a rudimentary hut on government land. That's where Liping grew up. The family was desperately poor and one of the sons was sold, because there wasn't enough food. Still, he died. Liping's mother became more and more unhappy with her situation, started drinking and quarreling, had boyfriends outside and finally kicked the old man out. She still somehow managed to relieve him of all his money every month, and when he didn't have any left - but she needed something - she sent him to steal it. Liping's father never complained very much. He was of the opinion that he was already very lucky and didn't really deserve such a beautiful wife anyway. He took on a second job selling sesame-balls in the streets, loved his children dearly, but was absolutely powerless to do anything about the worsening situation.
We don't know exactly what happened, it may have been sleep-deprivation or something more sinister, but one day he apparently stumbled with his push-cart into the traffic, got hit and killed. Liping was about thirteen years old when this happened.
Now things got even worse, because although Liping's mother got a pension, it was still less than before. The mother drank more, got more angry, beat the little sister even more and often simply left home for a period of time. More than once Liping came home from school to find her little brother literally crawling in his own shit. [<-- excrement]
When the little sister couldn't take it anymore, she left home and lived on the streets. She was twelve at the time. Liping left as well, but since she had always been an excellent student, she got good scholarships and lived in school dormitories. Her sister didn't even finish elementary school. Her older brother joined the military and the little brother followed a few yeas later.
Liping found a place to live for both of the little ones, and while it worked out fine for the brother, nothing seemed to work for the sister. She was simply too damaged, couldn't stand it to stay anywhere for long, couldn't develop any kind of trust and quit one job after another.
That was about the time when I appeared at the scene. We were both worried about her little sister and Liping continued to persuade and cajole her to stay with a job and to go to night-school to get at least a rudimentary education. It didn't look too good.
Liping herself had managed to get into the best program and the best university in the country. Her older brother, while being a very nice person, had somehow inherited the weakness of her father and never was any help. But that didn't really matter.
After a few years the little sister somehow realized that she would be in deep trouble if she continued what she was doing and made a real effort. It must have been a real killer for her, as she also had to work long hours for very little money at the same time. Then she met Ah-ji, they got married and things are looking good, although Ah-ji's family has its own troubles as well.
Both brothers are going to get married any time soon, and all they want is safety and security. They may be the most boring people you can imagine, but they know what they have and they will never ever risk it.
And Liping? The whole ordeal has left her a lot stronger than she otherwise would have been. I know her classmates quite well and I can say for sure that not one of them is as independent-thinking and as independent-acting as she is.
That turned out to be very important for me as well, as Liping told me that one of the main reasons that attracted her to me was the fact that life with me would never be boring, but unpredictable and always full of surprises. :-)))
~~~~~~~~~~
As to how they broke the vicious cycle: We will have to take Liping's words for that. According to her, the main reason lies with the fact that Taiwan was booming at the time. Another very important fact was that the Confucian work-ethic was still very much alive then. And the third was the fact that the country was ruled by a comparatively benevolent military junta.
In my own estimation the second one is probably the most important. No matter where you turned, whether it be to teachers, classmates' parents, or anywhere else in society - everywhere you got the mantra that hard work pays off in the end, that beginnings don't really matter, that trying your best is what it's all about. And like they said in Illuminatus: What I tell you three times is true. Sooner or later you believe it and when you believe it, it will give you confidence and with that confidence it is indeed possible to overcome.
~~~~~~~~~~
Things have changed drastically over the last twenty or thirty years. The boom has fizzled out, the junta has given way to a young democracy and you are beginning to see the first homeless. The Confucian work-ethic is a thing of the last generation and my students have so far lived their life in such luxury that it isn't easily imaginable for the average Westerner. The big issue now is independence. Many people want it at any price and the others are afraid of a war with China. Nobody - I mean not even 0.1% of the population - wants to be part of China. Take part in the boom which has moved over there, yes. But that's all.
Sunday, December 07, 2003
Christmas Shopping
We've come across COSTCO, SUVs & suburban life-style in many articles before. I would like to expand on that a bit. Expand it to include both the city as well as the countryside, the chic boutiques as well as the Home Depots, the Mercedes-Benzes as well as the pick-up trucks.
At the same time, I'd like to confine the topic to consumption. I don't want to talk about how bad chain-shops are for the environment, or how they destroy all kinds of other shops in the vicinity, how they exploit labor or show up execrable taste or behavior. Valid concerns, to be sure, but just not my main focus right now.
~~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks ago I went and had a look at a local tycoon's newly furnished apartment, and besides the main door which reminded me of a bank-vault, I was very much impressed by the walk-in closet which had enough space to hang up 250 suits. The place is for sale right now, it is a couple of minutes walk from where I live and the guy is asking a cool 19 million. My friend Alex, who renovated the place for 7 million just recently, thinks it is worth about 15 million. As far as I know said tycoon spent exactly one night in the place.
But back to the suits and back to consumption. Who needs 250 suits? I use the word need on purpose here, because one may want 250 suits, but it is hardly conceivable for one to need them. Who needs several furnished, but otherwise empty houses? Three or more cars? Several hundred pairs of shoes with matching handbags?
Of course I am picking out extremes for my examples, but that is only to make a point. Why are we all so hell-bent on consumption? There's my unemployed friend - the one who wrote only a few months ago that they were "barely eating" - who is now drinking Beaujolais Noveau whilst eating the most expensive soft cheeses. He just bought a brand-new van, too. He didn't suddenly inherit a princely sum of money or won the lottery. All that happened is that he finally found a job and got his first couple of paychecks.
Why is it that although technology advances and we should by all means have more leisure time and a better life, the rat-race has never been more insane than right now and all we have to show for it is more THINGS? Everybody is always busy, busy, busy and while people say that they are working towards financial independence or any other dream-goal, I have yet to see more than one that actually does it. I am not advocating living on bread and water only here. I like a bit of luxury now and then just like anybody. I like a comfortable car, I like good food, and I like vacations on tropical beaches. Maybe somebody else likes other things, but that is not the issue.
What I don't get is what the Chinese call "Yue Guang Zu". Zu means "tribe", guang means "empty" and yue stands for "moon", or in this case, "month". The tribe of people who have no money left at the end of the month. This is not related to how much they make, because these tribal people manage to spend any amount of money. I have good friends who easily go through $300k a year - and that is although the company pays for their sumptuous apartments and gets them all kinds of other perks that ordinary mortals have to do without. Not a few of those guys actually have a negative bank-balance.
But enough of this ranting now.
What I ask myself is why this is happening. Does all the blame go to those clever marketing guys, who know more about our unconscious then we ever will? Are we all victims, not only of fashion, but of consumption in all its aspects? Is it just the old "Keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome in a new and much deadlier dimension? Somehow I don't think so. People are responsible for themselves, so they should be able to see that this is not a path that leads straight to happiness. It probably doesn't lead there at all - and still we march on.
Or is it perhaps a more serious problem, deeper down in our psyche. So deep down, in fact, that we have no clue how to go about solving it. Maybe all this consumption is nothing but "Ersatz" (replacement)? We shop until we drop, because real satisfaction is so hard to come by? Maybe deep down in our genes the programming is out of synch with the real world that we live in right now.
~~~~~~~~~~
Different angle again. A couple of years ago I went to Germany to visit some old friends. I had to make an appointment - everybody is busy, remember? - and we met in the nicely landscaped garden. There was a crisp tablecloth on the outdoor table, home-made cake was served and the coffee was caffeine-free. In the beginning our conversation was dominated by topics designed to help us to catch up on each other. But after a little while, there was nothing more to say. They showed us their house, obviously expecting praise on how they had refurbished and furnished it. Same with the garden and the landscaping. Finally, the talk came around to growing tomatoes. And got stuck there.
Here were my old friends, stuck in their middle-class lives, with all the things that a middle-class person might aspire to and the most exciting topic of conversation was the growing of tomatoes. We hadn't seen each other for at least two years. I somehow doubt that Liping & I will go there the next time we are back in Germany.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against gardening or tomatoes in particular, but if that is the most exciting thing happening in your life, then I am at a loss on how to deal with that. This simply can't be all there is.
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friend
Then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is
Maybe true happiness is not to be found according to things that we want, but according to things that we need. Maybe these needs are anchored in our ape-genes and not so much changed by our learning over the last few thousand years. But of course we can't admit that because that wouldn't be sophisticated now, would it? But then I ask myself where this so-called sophistication is getting us. I do not see much evidence to show that we are improving overall. No "net gain in happiness" as I read a while ago in a popular science-fiction novel.
~~~~~~~~~~
I recently got a whole bunch of rare and old books. I haven't finished even one of them yet, because I want the pleasure to last as long as possible. I peeked into two of them and they have one thing in common. They both show how some people are standing head and shoulders above their contemporaries. Although times were much harder those days, these guys accomplished things that almost all people of these times would find pretty much impossible to duplicate. That is with the help of modern technology and knowledge. One of them is William Albert Robinson and the other one is Hanoi-born Bernard Moitessier. How did they say that again? Men of steel on boats of wood - and not the other way around.
~~~~~~~~~~
Somebody once said that real happiness is not found in the realization of those dreams which we developed as adults, but only in the realization of the dreams we had when we were children.
For Liping that means a happy family. She would go to Tierra del Fuego, if that's where she could find a happy family life. For me it is adventure. We are totally different, but so far we complement each other just fine.
~~~~~~~~~~
And one more phrase which has been jumping around in my head for a few days. After that I'll shut up. Here it is:
Are you amazed at yourself now? If not you better hurry up!
We've come across COSTCO, SUVs & suburban life-style in many articles before. I would like to expand on that a bit. Expand it to include both the city as well as the countryside, the chic boutiques as well as the Home Depots, the Mercedes-Benzes as well as the pick-up trucks.
At the same time, I'd like to confine the topic to consumption. I don't want to talk about how bad chain-shops are for the environment, or how they destroy all kinds of other shops in the vicinity, how they exploit labor or show up execrable taste or behavior. Valid concerns, to be sure, but just not my main focus right now.
~~~~~~~~~~
A few weeks ago I went and had a look at a local tycoon's newly furnished apartment, and besides the main door which reminded me of a bank-vault, I was very much impressed by the walk-in closet which had enough space to hang up 250 suits. The place is for sale right now, it is a couple of minutes walk from where I live and the guy is asking a cool 19 million. My friend Alex, who renovated the place for 7 million just recently, thinks it is worth about 15 million. As far as I know said tycoon spent exactly one night in the place.
But back to the suits and back to consumption. Who needs 250 suits? I use the word need on purpose here, because one may want 250 suits, but it is hardly conceivable for one to need them. Who needs several furnished, but otherwise empty houses? Three or more cars? Several hundred pairs of shoes with matching handbags?
Of course I am picking out extremes for my examples, but that is only to make a point. Why are we all so hell-bent on consumption? There's my unemployed friend - the one who wrote only a few months ago that they were "barely eating" - who is now drinking Beaujolais Noveau whilst eating the most expensive soft cheeses. He just bought a brand-new van, too. He didn't suddenly inherit a princely sum of money or won the lottery. All that happened is that he finally found a job and got his first couple of paychecks.
Why is it that although technology advances and we should by all means have more leisure time and a better life, the rat-race has never been more insane than right now and all we have to show for it is more THINGS? Everybody is always busy, busy, busy and while people say that they are working towards financial independence or any other dream-goal, I have yet to see more than one that actually does it. I am not advocating living on bread and water only here. I like a bit of luxury now and then just like anybody. I like a comfortable car, I like good food, and I like vacations on tropical beaches. Maybe somebody else likes other things, but that is not the issue.
What I don't get is what the Chinese call "Yue Guang Zu". Zu means "tribe", guang means "empty" and yue stands for "moon", or in this case, "month". The tribe of people who have no money left at the end of the month. This is not related to how much they make, because these tribal people manage to spend any amount of money. I have good friends who easily go through $300k a year - and that is although the company pays for their sumptuous apartments and gets them all kinds of other perks that ordinary mortals have to do without. Not a few of those guys actually have a negative bank-balance.
But enough of this ranting now.
What I ask myself is why this is happening. Does all the blame go to those clever marketing guys, who know more about our unconscious then we ever will? Are we all victims, not only of fashion, but of consumption in all its aspects? Is it just the old "Keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome in a new and much deadlier dimension? Somehow I don't think so. People are responsible for themselves, so they should be able to see that this is not a path that leads straight to happiness. It probably doesn't lead there at all - and still we march on.
Or is it perhaps a more serious problem, deeper down in our psyche. So deep down, in fact, that we have no clue how to go about solving it. Maybe all this consumption is nothing but "Ersatz" (replacement)? We shop until we drop, because real satisfaction is so hard to come by? Maybe deep down in our genes the programming is out of synch with the real world that we live in right now.
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Different angle again. A couple of years ago I went to Germany to visit some old friends. I had to make an appointment - everybody is busy, remember? - and we met in the nicely landscaped garden. There was a crisp tablecloth on the outdoor table, home-made cake was served and the coffee was caffeine-free. In the beginning our conversation was dominated by topics designed to help us to catch up on each other. But after a little while, there was nothing more to say. They showed us their house, obviously expecting praise on how they had refurbished and furnished it. Same with the garden and the landscaping. Finally, the talk came around to growing tomatoes. And got stuck there.
Here were my old friends, stuck in their middle-class lives, with all the things that a middle-class person might aspire to and the most exciting topic of conversation was the growing of tomatoes. We hadn't seen each other for at least two years. I somehow doubt that Liping & I will go there the next time we are back in Germany.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against gardening or tomatoes in particular, but if that is the most exciting thing happening in your life, then I am at a loss on how to deal with that. This simply can't be all there is.
Is that all there is?
If that's all there is my friend
Then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is
Maybe true happiness is not to be found according to things that we want, but according to things that we need. Maybe these needs are anchored in our ape-genes and not so much changed by our learning over the last few thousand years. But of course we can't admit that because that wouldn't be sophisticated now, would it? But then I ask myself where this so-called sophistication is getting us. I do not see much evidence to show that we are improving overall. No "net gain in happiness" as I read a while ago in a popular science-fiction novel.
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I recently got a whole bunch of rare and old books. I haven't finished even one of them yet, because I want the pleasure to last as long as possible. I peeked into two of them and they have one thing in common. They both show how some people are standing head and shoulders above their contemporaries. Although times were much harder those days, these guys accomplished things that almost all people of these times would find pretty much impossible to duplicate. That is with the help of modern technology and knowledge. One of them is William Albert Robinson and the other one is Hanoi-born Bernard Moitessier. How did they say that again? Men of steel on boats of wood - and not the other way around.
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Somebody once said that real happiness is not found in the realization of those dreams which we developed as adults, but only in the realization of the dreams we had when we were children.
For Liping that means a happy family. She would go to Tierra del Fuego, if that's where she could find a happy family life. For me it is adventure. We are totally different, but so far we complement each other just fine.
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And one more phrase which has been jumping around in my head for a few days. After that I'll shut up. Here it is:
Are you amazed at yourself now? If not you better hurry up!